Essential Skills Qualifications (3868)
An overview of planned adaptions for Essential Skills Qualifications for 2020/21
October 2020
Essential Skills Qualifications (Wales)
The Asset Management Group (AMG - City & Guilds, Pearson, WJEC and Agored Cymru) have met with Qualification Wales to discuss the way forward for the academic year 2020/21
It has been agreed that the AMG will review the situation at regular intervals to take account on public health advice and the Covid-19 situation – but the plan is to work back towards teaching, learning & assessment as normal
To mitigate the disruption to teaching, learning and assessment of the Essential Skills Wales qualifications, the following arrangements have been agreed with Qualifications Wales
These arrangements update and replace any previous arrangements communicated by the ESW awarding bodies. It is recognised that these arrangements may still present challenges for some centres; however, in putting these in place, the ESW awarding bodies have considered both the pathway for a return to the standard assessment model, alongside issues
relating to the manageability, validity and reliability of the Essential Skills Wales
Entry Level ECommS and EAoNS:
• There are no adaptations for Entry Level assessments.
• Candidates will need to complete the Controlled Task under supervised conditions
Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 – Learners who are registered and on programme and will complete their ESW qualification by 30 November 2020 –
• Candidates must successfully complete the Confirmatory Test under invigilated conditions
• They are not required to complete the Controlled Task – this component should be claimed in Walled Garden on successful completion of the test.
• Centres will need to ensure that learners have followed a substantive programme of learning
From 1 December 2020 – Learners due to complete after 30 November or new learners registered from 1 December:
• Candidates must successfully complete the Confirmatory Test under invigilated conditions
• In addition candidates must complete one of two Controlled Tasks – this can be assessed without invigilation
Essential Communication Skills and Essential Application of
Number Skills
Guidance for AssessmentMitigation for Essential Skills
Essential Digital Literacy Skills
Entry Level EDLS:
• There are no adaptations for Entry Level assessments.
• Candidates will need to complete the Controlled Task under supervised conditions
Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 EDLS - From 1 October 2020 - For all learners the following arrangements apply:
• Candidates need to complete a Controlled Task
• There will be a choice of two tasks
• The task does not need to be done under invigilated / supervised conditions
• Security of the live task must be maintained, either by using a collaborative tool / platform or password protecting - this must not be the password from Walled Garden used to protect papers on the website
• We are making word versions of the Candidate and Assessors’ packs available on the website to support remote delivery and assessment
• Candidates need to complete the structured discussion part of the task
• This can be done either individually or part of a small group
• The discussion may be carried out remotely and the recording made available for internal and external verification together with the candidate’s notes
Guidance for Assessment Mitigation for Essential Skills
Essential Employability Skills
Entry Level – EES:
• There are no adaptions proposed for this qualification.
Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 EES:
• The controlled task must be completed without adaptation
• The structured discussion must be completed
• This can be carried out remotely and the recording, together with the candidate’s notes retained for internal and external quality assurance
Guidance for Assessment Mitigation for Essential Skills
Appeals from CAG/Partial completion process
We have had a number of appeals from centres, following the CAG process in the Summer
• A number of these appeals are late partial completion and we have formulated a late partial completion process to be followed.
• Centres will be required to complete a form which is available from the Covid-19 page:
https://www.cityandguilds.com/covid-19/nations
• The form asks for details of the individual learner and each component
• There is a requirement to provide a rationale for the late submission of the partial claims
• The form must be signed off by the Head of Centre or their nominee
Monitoring of any ongoing impact resulting from Covid-19 restrictions
• The Asset Management Group will continue to monitor and review any
ongoing Covid-19 restrictions and their potential to disrupt learner access to assessment with a view to returning to the standard assessment model when it is feasible to do so.
In order to protect the validity and integrity of the qualification for the long term, centres must have completed teaching and learning across the full content of the qualification.
Essential Skills Qualifications (Wales)
Remote Invigilation
• The members of the AMG are exploring remote proctoring – we are all at early stages
• City & Guilds has launched a pilot of remote invigilation for EPA in England, the situation for high stakes qualifications such as Functional Skills and Essential Skills is that it is being explored but we are not yet in a position to be able to offer this